Cody Caves are located 3kms from Ainsworth Hot Springs. Turn off highway 31 on to the signed dirt road. High clearance 2WD is fine. The road to the caves is 10 kms. A short hike from the parking lot will bring you to the cave entrance.
Cody Caves, located in the Selkirk Mountains are a limestone cave system created approximately 170 million years ago when the limestone was thrust upwards. Water percolates through the soil and produces carbon dioxide from the organic matter of the forest. Limestone is dissolved when water containing carbon dioxide flows across it because of the weak carbonic acid that is produced because of a reaction when the two meet.
Cody Caves has an impressive display of calcium formations which include stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, and draperies. They are very delicate and only grow at the rate of one cubic centimetre every hundred years. Mud, dirt, even the oils found on our hands can halt the growth of these fragile formations.
The caves were discovered by Henry Cody in the 1890s. Cody Caves Provincial Park was formed in June 1966. Because calcium formations are so fragile the caves are now gated and can only be explored by a guided tour. The one hour tour is available daily in July and August, and by appointment in June, September, and other times of the year. Arrangements can be made for a three hour tour that takes the more adventurous deeper into the cave system.
To successfully log this cache you must
Email the cache owners with the answers to the following questions;
Answers can be found on the information signs at the cave entrance.
1. What is the exact age of Cody Caves?
2. When did Henry Cody discover the caves?
3. A smooth slab of rock directly above the entrance shows evidence of what?
Bonus points if you are able to record the air temperature just inside the cave entrance.
Optional Requirement:
Post a picture of your group with your GPS with the caves in the background
(1/1/2011 New logging requirement in compliance with the EarthCache Guidelines. "Requests for photographs must be optional.”)